Clinics in Fort Worth, other cities stop providing abortions, prepare to shut down

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Rex C. Curry/The Associated Press

Lee Valerius adds his name to the list of people holding a prayer vigil outside the Southwestern Women's Surgery Center in Dallas on Friday. The clinic will still be able to perform abortions under the state's new restrictions.

Published: 01 November 2013 04:29 PM

Updated: 01 November 2013 11:49 PM

McALLEN — The day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for Texas’ restrictive abortion law to take effect while it faces a legal challenge, many clinics across the state said they had stopped performing abortions. The clinics were preparing to shut down, leaving women seeking their services distraught.

“Patients are walking through the door; they are crying — they are freaking out,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates six abortion facilities in Texas and, she said, expects to close its locations in Fort Worth, McAllen and San Antonio. “We can’t stay open without any sources of income.”

The Texas law, passed by the Legislature in July, requires doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the procedure is performed, among other new rules.

In places such as the Rio Grande Valley and rural West Texas, the mandate put hundreds of miles between many women and abortion providers.

In September, a coalition of abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights as well as clinics and doctors sued to stop the law. On Monday, Judge Lee Yeakel of U.S. District Court in Austin blocked enforcement of the law’s requirement of physician-admitting privileges, saying it was “without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.”

Enforcement OK’d

On Thursday, three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans — Priscilla Owen, Jennifer Walker Elrod and Catharina Haynes — allowed enforcement to begin. A 20-page opinion stated that there was “a substantial likelihood that the state will prevail” and that Planned Parenthood and the other plaintiffs had not proved that the restrictions would place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions. All three appeals court judges were appointed by President George W. Bush, as was Yeakel.

Gov. Rick Perry praised the ruling, saying that it “affirms our right to protect both the unborn and the health of the women of Texas.”

Hagstrom Miller said she and her staff were planning to help patients get transportation or provide gas cards so they could go to clinics that still provide abortions. She has been trying to get doctors accredited by hospitals but said that the process was slow.

‘You can’t fight Austin’

Some 30 miles away in Harlingen, Dr. Lester Minto, the physician and owner of Reproductive Services, said that in three decades of providing abortions he had stood up to protesters, at times numbering in the hundreds, who have picketed the clinic and frightened his patients.

The new law, however, is a bigger obstacle. He said he had not been able to get admitting privileges from nearby hospitals. “You can’t fight Austin,” Minto said.

On Friday, patients came into the clinic for counseling and sonograms. Some told him they would travel to Houston, more than 300 miles away; others told him they would go to pharmacies in Mexico to buy abortion-inducing medications.

‘Far from over’

The communities Minto serves are among the nation’s poorest. On top of that, many of his patients cross the border from Mexico, where abortion is illegal in most places. Others live in the U.S. illegally.

A 39-year-old woman from Willacy County who was waiting to see Minto on Friday spoke on condition of anonymity because she was fearful of the judgment she would face in her small, rural community.

The woman said she and her husband are happily married but already have several children. They’re just getting back on their feet financially after her husband recently found work. The pregnancy was not planned.

“I just can’t afford to have another one,” she said, crying. But the money to travel north for an abortion isn’t there either.

At Planned Parenthood, spokesman Eric Ferrero said that four of the organization’s health centers — in Austin, Fort Worth, Lubbock and Waco — would not be able to perform abortions under the new rules but that those clinics would keep their doors open to provide other health services. The groups said they would continue to fight the Texas law.

“This is far from over,” Ferrero said.

Those opposing the law could petition the 5th Circuit to ask that all of its judges reconsider the decision in a process known as en banc, or they might take the case directly to the Supreme Court.

The New York Times,

The Associated Press

At a glance: Texas’ new restrictions

THE LAW

Known as House Bill 2, it includes four restrictions on when, where and how a woman may obtain an abortion. The first provision requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. Another provision bans abortions after 20 weeks unless the health of the woman is in immediate danger. If a woman wants to induce an abortion by taking a pill, the state will require her to take the pills in the presence of a doctor at a certified abortion facility. Lastly, beginning Sept. 1, 2014, all abortions must take place in a facility that meets the infrastructure requirements for an ambulatory surgical center.

THE EFFECT

Twelve abortion providers say they have attempted to obtain hospital privileges for their doctors, but so far none of the hospitals have responded to the requests. That means those clinics can no longer offer abortions, leaving at most 20 facilities open in a state of 26 million people. Texas women undergo an average of 80,000 abortions a year.

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